Parking not an issue when walking turns into exercise

• Published October 04, 2009

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Thank you to all the readers of The Olympian who responded to our call for questions to ask the municipal and county candidates in this fall's general election. I asked those questions at two candidate forums last week at The Olympia Center.

The League of Women Voters of Thurston County helped us stage those forums, which brought out a standing-room-only crowd for the Olympia City Council and Port of Olympia Commission races, and a half-full house for the Lacey, Tumwater and Thurston County races.

We asked the expected questions about the isthmus rezoning and the controversy over whether Capitol Lake should be turned back into an estuary.

But the question that to me drew the most interesting debate concerned how the apparent lack of employee parking at the new City Hall might affect downtown for customers and businesses.

The new City Hall will have only 47 parking spots, just enough for police officers and customers. All other employees will have to park elsewhere, or use alternative means of transportation.

The discussion interested me because, just before the forum began, I was drinking a hot beverage across the street at The Bread Peddler. A woman – whom I quickly came to know as Jane Laclerque (good to know there are other people in Olympia with French surnames!), who owns and operates the popular Fireside Books on Legion Way – introduced herself to me.

Laclerque said she is one of the “faithful 49” readers who enjoy my Sunday columns. So, I asked her, “Jane, if you were me, what would you write your next column about?”

Without skipping a beat, she answered, “Downtown parking.”

It’s not my place to share her views on the subject or what she might think about the lack of spaces at the new City Hall. You’ll have to drop into her bookstore for those. But I can share a point of our conversation about which we found ourselves in absolute agreement: Some people have unrealistic parking expectations.

What we mean is that many people going downtown expect to park directly in front of the store they want to visit. They might concede to parking a few spaces in either direction. Anything more would constitute a parking crisis of major proportions.

I visit downtown often and have never had trouble finding a street-side parking spot. But then, I’m also the kind of person who intentionally parks at the far end of parking lots to force a modicum of exercise into my otherwise sedentary life. Walking three or four blocks to get where I’m going is a pleasure, not a problem.

In fact, walking a little farther forces me to walk past stores I might not have noticed before. While on my way to somewhere else, for example, I recently discovered Bartel’s Men’s Store on Capitol Way, where I purchased a rather funky pair of shoes.

None of this excuses our council for the lack of employee parking at City Hall. It’s simply an endorsement of exercise and working it into your everyday life. With that perspective, enjoy a little walk when you are downtown, and lower your blood pressure at the same time.

George Le Masurier, publisher of The Olympian, can be reached at 360-357-0206 or glemasurier@theolympian.com.